Tampa Bay coach Lovie Smith told reporters today that Nicks passed his physical, and Nicks said he believes he’ll be sufficiently recovered from two foot surgeries that he can go for training camp.

“My status is on schedule. Looking forward to being ready for training camp,” Nicks said, via Tom Krasniqi of WDAE. “Honestly, I think I’ll be ready to play.”

Nicks has played just nine games with the Bucs in the two seasons since they signed him to a five-year, $47.5 million contract, thanks to a toe injury that required surgery, which then led to an infection. Nicks said he’s not in football shape and not running, and he expects to have permanent pain in the foot. But if Nicks can be close to the kind of player he was when the Bucs signed him, he could provide a significant upgrade to the offensive line in Tampa.

Article fails to mention that this infection was a result of the Bucs not sanitizing their facility correctly when a MSRA outbreak occured. It is not even his fault – it was the team’s fault! Thank goodness the management of last year is cleaned out when all of these bad things happened – I would hate to see this happen to anyone!